White House ordered to ‘immediately return, reinstate, and restore’ access for 3 news outlets

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily blocked Trump’s media ban.

Vaughn Hillyard, White House correspondent for MS NOW, does a report from near the White House,, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Washington. [Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo]

A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored.The ruling hands the outlets at least a temporary reprieve in what has been an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.Trump first announced he was banning the outlets Friday, assailing what he called “fake news,” and only later arguing that their reporting was a risk to national security. The outlets argued in a joint lawsuit that the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.In his late-night ruling, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access. He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.“This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote.A few hours later, a CNN reporter said she was denied entry to the White House compound.Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — said the........

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